Culture Vulture Couture: PDF’s SS26 Show Wasn’t Fashion — It Was Fetish
There’s a fine line between fashion as a statement and fashion as a spectacle — and Project Domenico Formichetti’s (PDF) latest show didn’t just cross it, it stomped all over it.
For their Spring/Summer 2026 collection, PDF sent mostly Black models down a prison yard-themed runway. The concept was labeled “freedom.” But the execution? Exploitative, tone-deaf, and straight-up gross.
June 23rd. Written by Ryan Packer“The crime they committed was realness.”
That’s the tagline PDF proudly pushed.
But let’s be real — this wasn’t about realness. This was about costuming the Black experience, packaged by a white European brand and sold as edgy fashion.
Domenico Formichetti, the designer behind PDF, has made a name for himself by pulling heavily — almost entirely — from Black American culture. And now? He’s taken it a step further, presenting incarceration like it’s some aesthetic to profit from.
“There are a million ways to celebrate Black culture. Prison shouldn't be one of them.”
Not just bad taste — dangerous
There’s nothing wrong with putting more Black models on the runway.
But using them to tell a prison story, while referencing “freedom” with a wink and a smirk? That’s not revolutionary. That’s exploitation. Especially when the brand behind it has no lived connection to the systems they’re mimicking.
It’s cosplay — not commentary.
It’s feeding stereotypes — not dismantling them.
Who is Domenico Formichetti?
PDF was founded by Domenico Formichetti, who also happens to be the creative director of a lesser-known brand called VAVA — short for Virgil Abloh Vision Always. Yes, you read that right.
He’s built his career mimicking the aesthetic of Black creatives while rarely acknowledging the communities that inspired it. Now, he’s literally staged a fashion show based on incarceration — using Black bodies as props in his performance.
If it feels like an episode of Atlanta, it’s because it is
Fans of Donald Glover’s Atlanta will remember the infamous Amsterdam episode — where European artists attempt to “honor” Black culture and end up turning it into bizarre, uncomfortable theater.
PDF’s SS26 show feels like that, but worse — because it’s real. And it’s backed by luxury dollars, high fashion status, and industry silence.
“This isn’t fashion-forward. It’s fetish-wear disguised as social commentary.”
Final Thoughts
Fashion should make us think.
But this wasn’t thoughtful. This was lazy, shocking, and offensive — and the fact that it made it to the runway without any pushback says a lot about who still holds power in this industry.
We don’t need more shows pretending to be political.
We need brands that actually understand what they’re saying — and who they’re saying it with.
Until then? PDF can keep the yard.